Most college students in the US and Western Europe use the traditional study method to acquire and learn course material. This method comprises three major steps. First, it consists of identifying, extracting and recording the most relevant subject matter from textbooks, journals and lectures, an exercise known as “concept capture.” Second, the key concepts are combined and compressed into a brief condensate. Third, in a process known as “time on task”, the condensate is recited repeatedly until rapidly recalled or memorized. Subjects generally use manual or computational note taking for each of the first two steps. Educators assert that the best results from the traditional method are achieved when the largest measure of study time is devoted to step 3, “time on task” rather than step 1, “concept capture.” This notion is conceptually rooted in the theory that repeated use or stimulation of information-bearing neural pathways lowers their conduction threshold and facilitates knowledge retention and recall.
In practice, the success of this method has been hampered by the inordinate length of time it takes a student to manually transcribe the key ideas from textual material. Students contend that the manual transcription process is laborious, tedious and interdicts the sustained concentration required to assimilate the subject matter. Importantly, most find that despite long hours of study input the method fails to produce superior test performance. Educators agree that the traditional method is ineffective largely because of the disproportionate amount of study time required in “concept capture” and consequent reduction in the fraction of time devoted to the all important “time on task.” They further assert that boredom/frustration with the traditional method is a major cause of student dropout and that conceptually new learning systems are needed.
The claimed method provides a solution this problem. In principle, it rapidly captures textual images from books, journals, manuals and transfers them into a computer or mobile device. It further extracts the key concepts from this material and converts them into an accurate summary. The entire process is accomplished in a single step and a fraction of time it takes to prepare such a document by the manual transcription method. A further advantage of the instant invention is that it reduces the amount of study time spent in “concept capture” and increases that expended in “time on task” or the repeated practice of the summarized material until memorized. As a consequence the claimed method outperforms the traditional method, promoting better command of the subject matter and test performance.
The instant invention uses camera phones, iPODs™, iPADs™, PDAs™, tablets, BlackBerries™, mobile computers and any other mobile device equipped with automated image acquisition software (collectively “image capture devices”) to precisely capture textual images. Once framed in the viewfinder, the image capture device automatically stabilizes, focuses (autofocus), rotates, brightens, auto-enhances and deskews/straightens printed lines. Precise and sharp image capture is also facilitated by omnidirectional image sensors in the image capturing device. Next, the image in JPEG, TIFF or binary format is transferred automatically to an OCR program where it is converted to editable text and then to a user understandable summary. The final summary may be practiced repeatedly and memorized in preparation for tests, discussion groups or presentations.
In an additional application the image capturing devices efficiently captures textual images by projecting on the text LED or laser framing brackets with a centered bulls-eye. Once the text is encompassed in the brackets, the image is automatically autofocused and captured as described below.
The claimed invention is rapid, accurate and simple to use and adapted to virtually any subject matter. Summaries can be performed on printed material such as law contracts, book chapters, magazine/newspaper articles, manuals and manuscripts. it is well adapted to the lifestyle of students, business people, lawyers, doctors and other professionals with a limited amount of time to capture and digest the key concepts from a large volume of printed material.
The claimed invention is based on the teachings of framed educational psychologist David Ausubel who held that effective learning occurs when the most significant ideas of a subject are presented first and then expanded progressively by adding related concepts and details.
According to Ausubel, instructional materials should attempt to integrate new material with previously presented information through comparisons and cross-referencing of the new and old ideas (Ausubel D P The Psychology of Meaningful Verbal Learning. Orlando, Fla.: Grune & Stratton, 1963; Ausubel, D P In defense of advance organizers: A reply to the critics. Review of Educational Research 48:251-257 (1978); Ausubel D P The Acquisition and Retention of Knowledge Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000).
The claimed invention applies Ausubel's learning principles by first producing an accurate summary of the subject matter which then functions as a knowledge tree with branches designed to accommodate related material.
The instant invention is especially useful for subjects with reading comprehension disorders the most common of which is failure of “significance detection” in which the subject cannot distinguish key points from less important information or prioritize data with different levels of detail. “Concept recognition dysfunction” is a subset of “significance detection” in which subjects have difficulty recognizing familiar themes in subject matter with only superficial differences. Struggles with these disorders usually surface in high volume college courses such as biology, political science, economics and psychology. The claimed invention is useful in this group because it rapidly identifies, extracts, consolidates and condenses the key concepts in textual subject matter into a machine summary. Frequent drill with this method enhances subjects' ability to recognize the most significant concepts in textual subject matter.
The claimed invention is also useful for short-term memory dysfunction. These subjects absorb information at a slow pace and are unable to keep up with the rapid rate of information in-flow in a classroom lecture. Similarly, subjects with short attention span cannot concentrate long enough to get work done before fatigue sets in. In a related malady, subjects with active working memory dysfunction actually lose track of what they are doing while they are doing it. They have to work fast lest they forget what they are doing. The claimed method is useful in these disorders because it rapidly captures and summarizes key concepts thereby allowing these subject to concentrate their limited “brain fuel” in repetitive practice of the subject matter. The audio summarizer of the claimed invention described herein is useful for this group because it eliminates note taking during a lecture. The audio summarizer acquires the lecture audio input, converts it from voice to editable text and summarizes the lecture content in real-time as the lecture proceeds. It also provides a printed summary of the entire lecture that can be readily accessed from the summary by clicking on its highlighted key words/phrases. In this way, slow note takers and those with short attention spans can access all the relevant subject matter at their own pace without being overwhelmed by the rapid rate of information input.
The claimed invention's major advantage over the traditional method is streamlining and accelerating the “concept capture” phase thereby allowing more “time on task” and improved mastery of the subject matter. With a single click, the claimed invention captures and autofocuses the textual image, converts it to OCR and summarizes the key concepts with the same alacrity as a barcode scanner that recognizes/decodes barcodes at the point of sale. No other program in the art consolidates these tools into a “simple to use” process that increases learning efficiency and promotes mastery/practical usage of textual subject matter.